Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)

I return to the issue of the amount of money being taken out of the economy and the effect of the two measures under debate on hard-pressed low and medium income families. I concur with previous speakers who noted that these measures will cause a great deal of hardship and remove a large amount of money from local economies. People will not have any money to spend.

My constituency colleague, Deputy Noonan, referred to how various types of families are affected by the measures. I propose to focus on the family highlighted in example 6 in the Budget Statement, which refers to a married couple with two children on an income of €30,000 per annum. The family in question will lose €1,900 or 5.8% of their income and more than that again if they have a mortgage for seven years or more. A family on €30,000 per annum simply cannot afford to lose €36 per week. I have cited the example of just one family.

All but one of the Deputies from my constituency are in the Chamber. In recent months, I have referred many families in circumstances similar to those I described to the Money Advice and Budgeting Service, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and various other agencies. Following the measures announced in the budget, I am certain many more such families will be unable to survive. My concern with regard to these two measures is that the Government was not sufficiently conscious of their effect on families such as the one I described.

Clearly, there are broader issues involved and the Taoiseach addressed a general issue on the budget. These two measures will, however, hit families very hard, particularly those on low incomes. In addition to the large number of jobless people who will not have money to spend in local shops, families in the circumstances I have described will not have any surplus money and will probably not be able to pay their bills. I do not believe the Government has thought through how these measures will affect such families.

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